By 2020, Half Of Content Viewing Will Be Mobile: Study

The growth of on-demand viewing will continue to soar through to 2020, making up almost half of the total viewing with 50 percent of all TV and video viewing will take place on a mobile screen (tablets, smartphones, and laptops), according to Ericsson.

The study predicts an increase of 85 percent since 2010, with the smartphone alone accounting for almost one quarter (an increase of nearly 160 percent since 2010). Additionally, VR will be on the road to becoming mainstream, with 1 in 3 consumers becoming VR users by 2020.

Ericsson’s eighth edition of its annual ConsumerLab TV and Media report details the massive growth in TV and video viewing and the ongoing shift in the way consumers watch content.

Anders Erlandsson, Senior Advisor, Ericsson ConsumerLab, said, “We can see that consumers are not only watching more video but also changing how and when they do so. This year also marks the first time that we have explored the level of consumer interest in VR in conjunction with media consumption, and the findings have been fascinating. VR has the potential to bring together people from all over the world and create deeper, more personalized, and more complementary media experiences.”

Time spent watching TV and video content has reached an all-time high of 30 hours a week, including active viewing of scheduled linear TV, live and on-demand internet services, downloaded and recorded content, as well as DVD and Blu-ray. However, close to 60 percent of viewers now prefer on-demand viewing over scheduled linear TV viewing, an increase of around 50 percent since 2010.

The average number of used on-demand services has increased from 1.6 in 2012 to 3.8 services in 2017 per person; 2 in 5 consumers already pay for on-demand TV and video services today and nearly a third (32 percent) say they will increase their on-demand spending in the next 6-12 months.

Portability is also becoming an increasingly important factor, with more than a third of consumers wanting access to content when abroad.

The findings also show that while consumers have more access to TV and video services than ever before, the average time spent on searching for content has increased to almost one hour per day, an increase of 13 percent since last year. In fact, 1 in 8 consumers believe that they will get lost in the vast amount of available content in the future.

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